Hell, I've even seen people *die* because of the high cost of health care. Actually, a father and son double act. Both were self-employed. Dad had no insurance, and even when he started feeling under the weather in a regular way, he would look at monthly bills and decide that going to the doctor would have to wait so things like food could be paid for instead.
When he finally went in (to the emergency room), his cancer was Stage 4. Oops.
A couple years later his son, also self-employed (and no insurance) was *trying* to look after his health, but all he could afford was going to the free charity clinic about 2 hours' round-trip drive away (this was before gas prices spiked). He and his wife, the first time he went there, reported that it was a creepy experience; they'd expected to be encountering the lower edge of society at this place (i.e., winos, meth cases, etc.), but those attending were middle class, driving OK cars, etc. . . . it was just that medical care was *so* expensive, even middle class folks without outside insurance were being driven to places like this.
Son's diagnosis was diabetes, which was oddly resistant to treatment, but the clinic was too harried and underfunded to really conduct a full battery of tests . . . until it turned out to be pancreatic cancer, not diabetes, and going metastatic by the time it was noticed (if it had been noticed earlier, there might have been treatment options). Oops.
So, within about 3 years' time, this one poor woman lost her husband and her son both, to cancers that could have been caught and significantly slowed with earlier screening.
That's *my* experience with the US health system and its current "death panels." >:(
Sorry, tl:dr, but every time this comes up, I think of two good men who shouldn't have died as soon as they did. Tends to make me type a lot . . .
no subject
When he finally went in (to the emergency room), his cancer was Stage 4. Oops.
A couple years later his son, also self-employed (and no insurance) was *trying* to look after his health, but all he could afford was going to the free charity clinic about 2 hours' round-trip drive away (this was before gas prices spiked). He and his wife, the first time he went there, reported that it was a creepy experience; they'd expected to be encountering the lower edge of society at this place (i.e., winos, meth cases, etc.), but those attending were middle class, driving OK cars, etc. . . . it was just that medical care was *so* expensive, even middle class folks without outside insurance were being driven to places like this.
Son's diagnosis was diabetes, which was oddly resistant to treatment, but the clinic was too harried and underfunded to really conduct a full battery of tests . . . until it turned out to be pancreatic cancer, not diabetes, and going metastatic by the time it was noticed (if it had been noticed earlier, there might have been treatment options). Oops.
So, within about 3 years' time, this one poor woman lost her husband and her son both, to cancers that could have been caught and significantly slowed with earlier screening.
That's *my* experience with the US health system and its current "death panels." >:(
Sorry, tl:dr, but every time this comes up, I think of two good men who shouldn't have died as soon as they did. Tends to make me type a lot . . .